a seminar blog exploring "Howl's Moving Castle", a written work adapted to animated film

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Skumps all around

Just a friendly reminder…

Skump responsibly.

Even in this umpteenth layer of adaptation — A German Grimm which becomes a French ‘fairy tale’ as it would come to be known, retold to become an animated film, retold before in however many ways I may have missed — fidelity is taken in present mythological bits, old even in the tale’s inception. I do not recall a Sword of Truth or Shield of Virtue in Perault’s mother goose, but I have read of magically enchanted gear imbued with similar names. The only dragon present in Perault’s tale pulls a chariot, where the witch of Geronimi’s Disney Classic manages to shape shift into that same symbol. Perault attributes a similar femme-evil form to an Ogress, an image as old as Grendel’s mother. Perhaps Malificent, being the only green-skinned ‘fairy’, may too be of ogre descent? There are other homages in the film to support such fringe ideas, the name Briar-Rose a more clear-cut connection to the Grimm tale. Is it just something an artist will do, without significant reason, in their work? I do not think so, which leads me to ask another; What mechanics are these myth swaps invoking?